In the Shadows
by DragonsRuleYourDreams12
Summary: Just a little oneshot drabble where Ed and Al talk, then Envy and Sloth come, and, yeah, it ain't very pretty. Flames are very welcome. PLEASE R&R!


"Brother?"

"Yeah, Al?"

Al looked up into the starry sky. "What... What am I?"

Ed gave a puzzling look toward the youth. "What do you mean? Is this some kind of a trick question?"

Al looked down. The two had been sitting atop a hospital roof for hours into the night, partly because Ed couldn't sleep.

The pause issued then seemed to last for hours, if not forever. "No..."

Ed's jaw dropped a little, but he caught himself and closed it. How was he supposed to answer such a question? "Wh... What?" he repeated, not so much because he hadn't heard correctly, but he craved his brother's reaction. He needed to know if he should answer it at all.

Al's eyes seemed to glow a little dimmer at that instant. Ed knew exactly what that meant. All of Al's little gestures told stories, long stories at that, which one could remember in an instant forever.

Ed felt his words shrink down, so small, that it was entirely impossible to ever grasp them again. Al looked over to the elder, acting almost as if Ed's answer was written on himself.

The shock of Al's big, ruby eyes made Ed's words grow tremendously. "You're my baby brother." Ed answered, his tone cautious.

"You know that's not what I meant." Al's voice was hard, matching perfectly with his bulky body. He was not one to draw out such a thing.

But Al, because he was Al, sometimes didn't settle for what normally amused him.

"Then what do you mean?" Ed snapped a little too hard. It was late and his younger brother was aggravating him, more now than usual. Every time night swung around, he would start to become quiet and lost in thought. Ed never imagined it to be something of this level, though.

Al didn't answer, somehow knowing that Ed knew the words behind his words.

"Al..." Ed clenched his hand into a fist. "I'm a guy with false limbs, a nasty temper, and an unusual state alchemist license. I'm just as human as you are, as human as anybody on this world is."

"That's what I'm afraid of, Brother!"

"Why?" Ed leaned on the armor.

"The homunculi. They're not human. Yet they live with the rest of us. They are very inhumane, yet they have the bravery to go out in public. If I am as you say I am, then why don't I have the courage to go out and be with others that are like me?" Al's voice rose higher and higher with every word, if even possible.

"That just shows how much more you are. Normal people are afraid of things, no matter what they may be. Homunculi aren't brave because they don't fear death. They aren't brave because they walk alongside us. Nothing about them is brave. The only thing they are is cruel. They're mistakes." Ed smiled, shifting his feet.

"They have souls, don't they?" Al seemed a little calmer.

"Yeah."

"Does that still make them mistakes?"

"It's the fact that those souls were brought back into the world. That's the reason they are mistakes."

"Is that the same with everybody?"

Ed closed his eyes. "Yeah, I guess."

There was a tiny gasp emitted from within the armor. Ed's eyes opened at the sound. He looked up at the two shaking ruby eyes.

"Brother?!?" Al exclaimed. "Am I am mistake?!?"

Ed's biggest fear had just come true. Perhaps not his biggest fear, but one of them. He never, ever, wanted Al to think that he did not belong in this world.

"Al!" Ed shot up. "It's not that at all!"

"I knew I was something other than a human!" Al buried his face into his hands, acting as if he could cry.

Ed's eyes became misty. His heart throbbed in his chest. His mind told him to reach out and touch the suit of armor, yet his heart wouldn't let him move.

Al shook his head and curled up tighter.

Ed finally got a grip on himself and placed his hand on the armor's shoulder.

He should have listened to his heart.

The armor looked up with evil eyes. "Edward, Edward, Edward…" it said, it's voice deep and threatening. "You've always been a sucker for a good pity story."

"Al?" Ed's eyes hardened.

"Can't you see? You should've died back when we tried to make Mom." The armor had become sadistic.

"What?!" Ed stammered. "Al! What do you have in your head?"

"What do you think? Seeing as it's never dreams, because you stuck me in this horrible body!" it exclaimed, raising its hands into the air.

Ed scooted back. He shook his head, his eyes becoming round and paranoid. "Al! Come on! You said you didn't hate me for this! So why are you flipping out now?"

The armor began to laugh. It was a disgusting hollow sound, much unlike the voice of Alphonse Elric.

Much unlike the voice that Edward knew.

Ed growled and gritted his teeth. "Who are you and what have you done with Al?!?" he demanded.

"Do you doubt that I am Alphonse Elric? That I am the very person you transmuted?!"

Ed forced his palms together. Years of transmuting like this were tucked under his belt. Why did it seem so hard now?

But a gloved hand proved that one must always be ready, for one who strikes first strikes fastest.

It clamped around the blonde's neck and held itself in place until the great Fullmetal Alchemist fell limp.

He landed soundly on the hard cement roof like a doll that had been dropped.

The head of the armor was flung off and landed noisily beside Ed.

A clear blue liquid took shape and stretched out of the armor, leaving the empty shell on the ground, also beside Ed.

The liquid slithered over to the corner of the roof and shot into the air about five feet before taking the shape of a female in a long black dress.

A shorter boy with auburn colored hair stepped into the light from the deep shadows he had been standing in. "Sloth, I must say, great job on your part."

The boy slowly began to grow in height. Small blue static sparks popped and cracked as the boy morphed.

"And you did very well with the emotion in your voice, Envy." Sloth said, folding her arms and gazing at the two bodies lying motionlessly.

"I am very surprised. Such a simple-minded task could kill both of them, after all of our clever attempts." Envy laughed, placing his hands on his hips.

"Come on; let's go tell Father before somebody finds us." Sloth sighed, moving back toward the shadows.

"He will be very pleased with us." Envy's smile turned to an ear-to-ear grin as he followed Sloth.

And, in the moonlight, lay two bodies; One with big, open, shocked eyes, and the other; a motionless suit of armor lacking a blood seal.


End file.
